Company says levels are too high for manufacturing

8:49 AM,
Apr. 10, 2013

The Hudson River is seen Tuesday looking south from Linwood Spiritual Center in Rhinebeck.

Written by

John Ferro
Poughkeepsie Journal

As local officials wrestle with how best to limit contaminants in water drawn from the Hudson River, one of the biggest drivers of that effort is not a federal agency or a health department. Nor is it home to anyone.

It is IBM, the county's largest private employer and a huge consumer of water sitting at one end of a system controlled at various points by the City and Town of Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County.

IBM pays to take as much as 2 million gallons of water each day, although it uses much less than that. The water is dispensed from the end of a long pipeline that runs beneath the Dutchess County Rail ...